A quick demo of the new BlackBerry 10 keyboard

It's been said multiple times that the first BlackBerry 10 device will be full-touchscreen. This doesn't sit well with a lot of people that love their BlackBerry for the QWERTY keyboard, as many are hesitant to switch to a device without physical keys. Understanding this hesitation, Research In Motion has poured a lot of time into making the BlackBerry 10 on-screen keyboard experience as phenomenal as the physical keyboard is. In the video above from the BlackBerry World 2012 keynote session you can see not only predictive text and gesture-based control, but some other "key" features that will be present in the upcoming OS.

"Two big topics he set the record straight on were: 1) RIM isn't abandoning physical keyboards. There will be physical keyboards on future BlackBerry 10 devices. 2) Thorsten never said RIM was going to get out of the consumer market. He said they'd partner with other companies. Gaming partners was a good example, since he acknowledged RIM isn't a gaming company. But their engine definitely supports gaming."

Wow that looks ridiculously awesome! I've never had a BB without a physical keyboard so I did not expect to be saying this but I can't wait for this VIRTUAL keyboard!! I have a feeling that if BB10 comes out ON TIME, RIM will return in a big way...

I'm in the "if there's no physical keypad, I'm not upgrading" group. I currently have a 9810 and I love it, but using the touch pad just doesn't do it for me. Withing a physical keypad, the phone doesn't differ much from the I-phone or Droids and those have better apps.

Here's hoping a developer will create a case with a physical keypad attachment or that RIM comes out with a slider.

So my question is how long can we live on OS7 while waiting for a keypad BB?

I was going to buy a 9900, but then I was just going to wait until the fall for a BB10 device. Now I'll need to hold out until the first BB10 with a physical keyboard. I bought my Glalaxy S the day it came out and I've learned to hate virtual keyboards. I use Swiftkey just to tolerate my phone these days.

Why not incorporate this new keyboard in the PB now or NEAR future if it is complete as a way of user introduction and create more buzz and excitment for the release of BB10. Intro on the PB will or should satisfy those with larger hands and so on and give RIM instant feedback on user experience before the new phone hits the streets.

Another iphone look alike, should go over real well. Wake up Rim, we need function, not gimmicks. A touch screen phone may be fine for people with pencil sized fingers but for those of us with larger hands it does not work.

Cash-rich RIM has a habit of buying companies that provide key technologies to BlackBerry devices ;)

1. I hope that the Home Button is on BB OS10 devices!!
This is by far the biggest productivity loss, if there is no physical Home Button to go back to HomePage. How many times do we press the Home Button? Countless times each day! I may well avoid BlackBerry Devices if there is no such physical Home Button.

I don't understand why you absolutely need a physical home button. If you've ever used the PlayBook then you know all you need to do is swipe up from the bottom of the screen and you have access to the home screen.

It's already been confirmed that SwiftKey was partnered with to bring predictive typing to the Playbook. This just takes that implementation and makes it even better! I've used SwiftKey on my SGS, and it does make typing easier to do without a physical keyboard. But the suggestion bar across the top can be distracting, and can slow you down while looking for the right word. The way this is implemented, it looks a lot more integrated. I like how the words are right on the keyboard itself linked to the first letter of each suggestion. You don't have to look away from the keyboard to use it. I'm looking forward to trying this out!

I'm an old dog....and I just can't get excited about a phone without a physical keyboard. It's cool seeing people using and being good at using cool features like the ones in the clip above...but I don't think i'd be much good at the predictive text and i'd probably never use it. :(

I have to say, though, that the 9900 is more or less exactly what I was looking for when I bought my 8900. The 9900 even has FLAC playback (which I'm rather excited by).

The lack of FLAC support was my main and only "real" complaint about the 8900 (apart from the web browser and gummed up trackballs). Older BB devices (83xx) supported FLAC, and the audio chip of the 8900 did hardware decoding of FLAC, but BBOS 4.6/5.0 didn't support the codec. I still don't understand why RIM didn't throw in those lines of code...

Thanks, anyway, for "bringing FLAC back" in BBOS 7 (I wouldn't know if it was on BBOS 6 or not; I didn't like the looks of any device that ran that OS). I'll be looking forward to seeing what "real" keyboards RIM has in store for BBOS 10...

I am also an aged canine, and I own a PlayBook. You are correct; the predicted words pop up as you type, but I completely ignore them as I concentrate on hitting the right key next.

I just hope that the BB10 version of SwiftKey backs WAY, WAY off on the aggressive auto-replacement of what you type with what the keyboard thinks you meant to type. Replacing "dont" with "don't" is necessary, but replacing "ka" with "karaoke" is unforgivable. It wastes my time spent correcting the keyboards "corrections," it forces me to spend even more time paying attention to what I just typed (instead of what I'm typing next) looking for unwanted changes, and if I do miss one of its annoying mistakes, I send off an email containing gibberish. It's supremely annoying, at best.

I like this keyboard and a lot of the features are quite an improvement over the touchscreen keyboard on the Playbook.

One thing I really hope they change:
Add small numbers/symbols on the alphabet keys so I know where the key I want to hit will be once I switch from alphabet to numbers/symbols. That's one thing I HATE about the Playbook keyboard. It annoys me every single time I use it. I know it distracts from the "clean" look of the keyboard, but it sure would help me type faster...supposedly a key goal.

One minor issue I noticed:
When he switched to the numbers/symbols screen the predictive text words from the alphabet screen were still visible. They should probably disappear when you switch away from the screen with the keys they are predictions for. EDIT: after re-watching the video I noticed this didn't always happen. Right around 45 seconds is when I first notice it in this video.

Well done RIM, Well done. Really impressed with the keyboard. Looks like they really thought this through and want to offer the best writing experience on a touch device. Sad thing is, in a couple of weeks the android and iOS app stores are gonna be flooded with a cheap copy of this idea.

This might get me off of a physical keyboard for the 1st time and be happy about it. Time will tell for sure. RIM, I sure hope you patent the hell out of this one because it looks like the best on screen keyboard that I've ever seen!

You are correct. SwiftKey has been doing this on Android for years, and these idiots who know nothing call it innovation on Blackberry. They either licensed it or stole it from SwiftKey(I assume they licensed it like the playbook). It just goes to show though how out of the loop Blackberry users really are these days. I hope Blackberry makes a comeback because the market needs competition but with users like these I'm not sure it's possible.

You are missing the swift key feature that inserts the predicted word when you push the spacebar. Swift key has the swype left to delete feature as well. It is CLEARLY not a RIM invention, just an adaptation of existing software.

Since SwiftKey is being used now for the text prediction on the Playbook, they likely licensed it.

What's different about it is the way the text prediction works (instead of all the word suggestions at the top of the keyboard, they are tied to the keys); the use of gestures (to change they keyboard layout or slide the words you want to your text); and most importantly of all, the way the keyboard will 'learn' where you hit keys.

So, what is unknown is did RIM build these new features themselves, or ask SwiftKey to do it and what rights does it have over these new features.

To me, the most important is the 'learning' aspect. Currently SwiftKey focuses on learning which words you type and not how you type. As a result, I still can't stand typing on my S2 no matter it being the stock keyboard, Swype, or SwiftKey (though I really like the way you can customize things in SwiftKey like the duration of haptic feedback and the time before the second function of the key kicks in). Nothing is as good as the keyboard on the 9900.

So, if RIM has found a way, either on their own or in partnership with SwiftKey, to do a better virtual keyboard, then great.

And hopefully, those 'unique' elements can be protected and kept just for blackberry. Maybe that isn't likely but would give BB's an edge.

If you want to test this keyboard, you can try using swiftkey x on an android device. It has the same auto prediction and swype to delete. The only thing it doesn't do is have that swype down gesture to get to the symbols menu which is a pretty nice feature.